The Choral (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

PopEntertainment
2 hours ago
4 min read

THE CHORAL (2025)

Starring Ralph Fiennes, Roger Allam, Mark Addy, Alun Armstrong, Robert Emms, Simon Russell Beale, Lyndsey Marshal, Emily Fairn, Jacob Dudman, Taylor Uttley, Shaun Thomas, Tamzin Griffin, Angela Curran, Reuben Bainbridge, Oliver Briscombe, Amara Okereke and Ron Cook.

Screenplay by Alan Bennett.

Directed by Nicholas Hytner.

Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. 113 minutes. Rated R.

Much like the episodes of Masterpiece Theater which undoubtedly inspired the creators of The Choral, this film takes some huge subjects – war, homosexuality, artistic integrity, coming of age, mourning, prostitution, jingoism, wounded warriors, affluence, infidelity, patriotism, chastity, love, hatred, death – and tells a small, polite, slightly mannered story about them.

Some issues, refreshingly, are not even acknowledged, like racism – in early 20th century England, one of what seems to be only two Black women in the town is not only one of the most beloved people in the hamlet, but also one of the most talented stars of the show, and nobody cares in the least about the color of her skin. This is the way it should have been, but you have to wonder if it really was the way that things were in tiny corners of England in 1916.

There is something slightly repressed about the story of The Choral, although they are telling a story with huge implications just off camera – sometimes even on screen. However, the people of The Choral are dealing with huge shifts in their lives and in the world by trying to focus on something smaller, more manageable – putting on a show.

It even revolves around a now relatively obscure piece of music – Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, a 1900 oratorio based on a poem by Cardinal John Henry Newman. This work may have been somewhat well-known in the 1916 setting of this story – although I get the feeling that it was a bit obscure even then – but while I acknowledge it is not the type of music I normally listen to, I certainly never have heard of it.

According to a quick Google search, the piece “depict[s] a pious man's soul journey from death through judgment to Purgatory, exploring themes of faith, fear, and redemption.” Much like the film it motivated, apparently the musical inspiration for this story is telling a story much more substantive than it appears to be telling on the surface.

The story takes place during World War I in the fictional town of Ramsden, Yorkshire. The battles going on all around are almost completely unseen in the film, but the ramifications are everywhere. Nearly everyone in the town has had a family member or friend killed or maimed in the war, to the point that it is nearly the only thing that anyone can talk about. Everything that anyone does in the town is overshadowed by war and death, although they try desperately to get on with life as usual.

It is in that spirit that the town throws itself into their local chorus, trying to find respite from reality in the creation of art.

The Choral is an ensemble drama, no one member of the town has the full focus of the film for very long – and that includes Ralph Fiennes’ choirmaster Dr Henry Guthrie, although since Fiennes is the most recognizable actor in the cast the poster and trailers tend to put Fiennes front and center. Honestly, he is one of only three actors that I recognized from previous works. The other two were Mark Addy, the British comic actor who had a brief flirtation with stardom 20 to 30 years ago with the film The Full Monty and the sitcom Still Standing, and Simon Russell Beale, who has a brief cameo as the composer of the musical piece, Edward Elgar.

Dr. Guthrie is a closeted and rather repressed homosexual (as was necessary at the time, as homosexuality was illegal) who is worried about his life partner, who is off at battle. (It seems that some of the townspeople suspect Dr. Guthrie’s secret private life, but as noted before, this seems to be an extremely chill, woke village.) However, Dr. Guthrie cannot acknowledge his emotions and instead throws himself into the choral. He is a stern taskmaster, but he is a fair man.

However, The Choral revolves mostly around the townspeople who put on the show – everyone from some teen boys who are tasked with notifying their neighbors of their soldier’s deaths while awaiting their own call to war, to the young girls who have trouble finding love because most of the men are off at war, to the local townsmen and businesspeople who use the music as a distraction from the war and their lives.

I’m not 100% sure that the story of The Choral was something necessary for the world, but the filmmakers mostly do a fine job in telling it. I can’t see anyone getting passionate about The Choral, but then again, the film is more about repressing passions than living them, so perhaps that fits.

Jay S. Jacobs